Introduction

by Jeanette C. Fincke

The British Museum's Ashurbanipal Library Project focused on the Babylonian
texts from Nineveh (Kouyunjik) is investigating the kind of Babylonian compositions
the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-627 BC) ordered to include into his
royal library and their relation to the rest of the Kouyunjik Collection and
to the king's collecting activities. This project was conceived with a six
months research on the Kouyunjik Collection itself and became reality in March 2003 through
the generous funding by the Townley Group of the Friends of the British Museum. As a result
of the first part of the project I made 86 joins and created a database on the Babylonian Nineveh tablets.
A second part of the Ashurbanipal Library Project was conducted from October until December 2005.
This time I made 59 joins. During the third part of the Ashurbanipal Library Project (April until June 2006), I was able to make an additional 38 joins.
During the three months in 2005, I also went through the files of the Museum to collect information
on the Nineveh tablet fragments that have been rejoined so far. During the first weeks of 2006
I created a database on the Nineveh joins, the Assyrian and Babylonian ones.

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Firstly, I would like to give every scholar of Assyriology
the chance of using the information of these databases.

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Secondly, I ask everybody who uses these databases to
email corrections and / or additional information to me.

Acknowledgements:

My sincere thanks are due to the Trustees of the British Museum for their
agreement to publish the preliminary results of this project in this way and to the
Townley Group of the Friends of the British Museum for funding this project.
I would like to cordially thank the staff of the Ancient Near East Department
of the British Museum for their manifold support. My special thanks go to
Christopher Walker, who not only initiated this project and followed every
step of my research with great interest by supplying me with additional information
and material but also was always a very good friend with me, to Marie-Christine
Ludwig, who offered to me hospitality for my first days in London and friendship
as well - I appreciated both, and to Irving Finkel, who used to discuss
various issues with me. I am very grateful to John Curtis, director of the British Museum's Ancient Near East Department,
who was very helpful on various occasions. None of my research could have been successful without help of the
Museum Assistants of the Ancient Near East Department and the Conservators of the British Museum's Conservation Department.

Various scholars already shared their knowledge and sometimes also their
unpublished manuscripts with me to include the new data into the database of the Babylonian Nineveh Texts
and the Nineveh Joins list. The introduction into each of these databases gives the list of their names.